Apple building solar-powered sapphire plant in Arizona

Apple is bringing up to 2,000 jobs to Arizona – the company is building a new manufacturing facility in the town of Mesa, near Phoenix. The plant will employ at least 700 people, and the governor of Arizona says its construction and operation will create up to 1,300 additional jobs.

Those 700 factory employees will not actually work for Apple. Instead they will work for GT Advanced Technologies. GT has a deal in place with Apple to own and operate sapphire furnaces at the Mesa plant. Sapphire is used in the iPhone 5s fingerprint sensor. It is also used in all iPhone camera lenses.

Many of the new construction jobs generated by the plant will be related to building solar panels. The factory will be powered by renewable energy.

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Editor, Wireless Infrastructure[email protected]
Martha DeGrasse is an editor at RCR Wireless News. Martha has been with RCR Wireless News since 2011. Her current focus areas are wireless infrastructure and heterogeneous networks. Prior to joining RCR Wireless News, Martha produced business and technology news for CNN and Dow Jones in New York. Martha left Dow Jones to move to Austin, Texas, where she managed the online editorial group at Hoover’s Online before taking a number of years off to be at home when her children were young. Follow her at Twitter @mdegrasseRCR